News from Jancis Robinson

A version of this article about Bolgheri is published by the Financial Times. See also Bolgheri – the tasting notes.
‘There is no plan B.’ With evening rain forecast, this was a constant, worried refrain in Bolgheri, the Tuscan coast’s smartest wine region by far, on the last day of August. The wine producers’ ambitious plan was to serve a dinner

Devoted chef in north London needs more customers.
Ahead of my article next week about a remarkable woman in the British restaurant trade – Helen O’Malley, the 54-year-old mother of eight who is the public face of the Bo Tree Kitchen Thai restaurant in Belfast – here is another paean of praise to a second woman in this arduous business. A woman

Four of the Tuscan coast's more glamorous wines, or estates, analysed – Argentiera, Masseto, Matarocchio and Ornellaia. See also Dinner on the avenue – for 720.
Bolgheri, the DOC that is the Tuscan coast’s brightest star, inspired by the obvious quality of Sassicaia, is hugely distinctive. It’s the only Tuscan DOC whose red wines are dominated by

A super-crisp, low-alcohol Basque white of interest.
From €10.90, $18.99, £15.90, AU$30.
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On the UK’s most recent Bank Holiday, amid record-breaking 33 °C (91 °F) temperatures, I was strolling languidly through south-west London, en route home, when I was diverted into the relatively new Putney branch of The Sampler, the wine

12 September 2019 Remember to vote for your favourite entry in our summer travel writing competition. You have until midnight tomorrow.
5 September 2019 Members of our Purple Pages are being asked to decide who wins this summer's competition. Vote, vote, vote!
Yesterday we announced the shortlist of our 10 favourite entries in our 2019 wine

An eerily quiet tasting of Kedem's Israeli wines in London suggested something of a winemaking rut.
This was probably one of the quietest tastings I have ever been to in London. Very different from the oversubscribed and incredibly noisy New Wave South Africa tasting that Jancis and I went to last week. (We’ll be publishing our notes shortly.)
I

A follow-up to last year's Master Sommelier saga.
This week the Court of Master Sommeliers – Americas completed the annual exam for the Master Sommelier diploma. Candidates completed the theory portion of the exam previously. Only after passing theory are candidates then able to progress to the service and blind tasting portions of the exam, which

Another revealing encounter at San Polino outside Montalcino and praise for their 2014.
At the beginning of August I visited Katia Nussbaum and her husband Luigi Fabbro at San Polino, their estate in Montalcino. (Right is Monte Amiata as seen from San Polino.) Nussbaum, who in a widely admired recent article wrote about how she would like

In his second monthly dispatch from his new home in Singapore, Richard sinks his teeth into the local wine trade. Most images courtesy of Kath Hemming.
Sometimes the best food match is simply the most expedient. So it proved when I was faced with the freshly cleaved skull of a whole-roasted duck, with the enticement that the brains within taste

True value identified.
You may remember that one of my August rituals is a fine-wine tasting organised by my neighbour in the Languedoc, Graham Nutter of Ch St-Jacques d’Albas in Minervois. Over the years we have enjoyed all sorts of geographical and producer themes (put Nutter in our search box to find them) but this year for the first time, he

‘The heart-based approach to sustainability is a little naive. We need to be scientific and clear-headed, without giving up the heart, to get ourselves out of this mess.’
California is an environmental conundrum. It is the USA’s fourth-largest producer of crude oil out of 50 states, the third-largest oil refiner and the largest consumer of jet

A collection of German Pinot Noirs with virtually nothing in common.
The only consistent thing among these wines is their inconsistency. This is perhaps how it should be for any collection centred on Pinot Noir, still the most capricious of grapes, whose elusive quality is a key part of its attraction. This particular bunch are all German, but

Samantha Cole-Johnson, who submitted the recently published Portland for wine lovers in our 2019 wine travel writing competition (vote here for your favourite), begins a series of reports on life as an intern at an Oregon winery during the 2019 harvest.
I figured out why work pants need six pockets and a loop. It’s because harvest interns are